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Opinion | The Aftermath of a Pandemic Requires as Much Focus as the Start


The Global Primary Care Force also provides critical capacity to detect future public health threats and respond. When people develop a strange rash, nasty cough, or severe fever, the local doctor or nurse they trust most will recognize that it could be mpox (as it is now known as smallpox). , a new coronavirus variant or deadly bird flu. outbreak. And then it is those primary health care professionals who will provide the necessary tests, vaccinations, and treatment to the community at large. Yet around the world, they are frequently among the most neglected and underfunded parts of the healthcare workforce.

This brings us back to the conditions that led to the first global decline in life expectancy in generations. Human life expectancy doubled in less than a century, one of the greatest achievements in history, achieved through worldwide collaboration in a sustained effort to tackle the many causes of human life expectancy. individual mortality and morbidity — polio, HIV/AIDS, diarrhea, malaria and risky childbirth, to name just a few. These efforts have saved millions of lives, but they depended on the first responders to achieve their impact. This workforce is also the one we must now trust to bring the management of future coronavirus variants into routine care.

A little over a year ago, when I assumed my role at the US Agency for International Development, where I oversaw foreign assistance for global health, one of my great hopes was to help fix systemic damage. So I was delighted when President Biden requested funding from Congress last year not only for these critical illness programs and to prepare for future pandemics, but for a Global Health Workers Initiative. It will provide targeted investments abroad, such as training and digital tools, that advance the world’s efforts to rebuild the workforce needed to recover. health and survival. However, the aggregate budget adopted in the final weeks of the last Congress eliminated this funding.

Last week, the president again issued a budget to support this important effort. Recovery has received too little attention and resources, and Congress must do its part to change that.

In the meantime, I’ve been working with my USAID team to do what I can. Starting with the governments in the seven countries we support — Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and the Philippines — we set out to align resources to restore mortality at levels higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2025, at a minimum, children under 5 and women under 50. To this end, we are working country-by-country to analyze gaps in essential health services and underlying weaknesses in the primary health care workforce that services provide. that depends. We are also working with governments and international organizations to focus our resources on closing those gaps over the next two years.

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